Pit Talk -- Comments and Questions Regarding These Pellet Pits > Firecraft
Temperature Troubles
jgrayson:
Hello,
It's been about 18 months since I had to replace the controller in my FireCraft and I installed one of the RecTec WiFi controllers. When I first did this repair, things were great. Recently though I have been having temperature problems. On my last few cooks the temperature has been way over the controller set point. I had the controller set to 225 for the last cook, but the actual internal temperature was over 300.
I did recently change the igniter, but I really don't think that could have caused this. Even if the igniter doesn't go cold after the start up procedure I doubt it would create that much heat to keep the pit at such high temperatures.
I know some others here have swapped one of these RecTec controllers into their FireCraft pits. Have you tried adjusting the pellet feed parameters? Just wondering if this might help control the temperature if I can slow down the pellet feed rate. I would need to be careful not to over compensate and lead to flame outs.
If there isn't much feedback here, I'll ask the same question in the RecTec forum.
Canadian John:
Not much help here - just interested. Sounds as if you are on the right track especially if the the ambient rose along with the higher grate over set temps.
W6YJ:
I don't know anything about the Rec-Tec controllers, but am guessing it shows both the set point and measured pit temp.
If so, are you seeing the higher than expected temps on the controller readout, or on an external thermometer?
If only on an external thermometer, the RTD or whatever temp sensor Rec-Tec uses may be failing (or has a bad connection to the controller).
Mikro:
--- Quote from: jgrayson on June 15, 2020, 11:16:23 AM ---Hello,
It's been about 18 months since I had to replace the controller in my FireCraft and I installed one of the RecTec WiFi controllers. When I first did this repair, things were great. Recently though I have been having temperature problems. On my last few cooks the temperature has been way over the controller set point. I had the controller set to 225 for the last cook, but the actual internal temperature was over 300.
I did recently change the igniter, but I really don't think that could have caused this. Even if the igniter doesn't go cold after the start up procedure I doubt it would create that much heat to keep the pit at such high temperatures.
I know some others here have swapped one of these RecTec controllers into their FireCraft pits. Have you tried adjusting the pellet feed parameters? Just wondering if this might help control the temperature if I can slow down the pellet feed rate. I would need to be careful not to over compensate and lead to flame outs.
If there isn't much feedback here, I'll ask the same question in the RecTec forum.
--- End quote ---
I had the same experinence after about 3 months. My temp would rise about 2 degrees every few minutes and continue until it errored out. I spoke with RecTec and they would not give me any suggestions as to what was wrong since it was not on a RecTec grill other than swap it into my RecTec Grill (a Stampede) to test it. The same thing happened. RecTec Basically told me to go take a leap, that I screwed it up using it in the Firecraft. So I am rebuilding my firecraft controller so it will work and move on. I am still not happy about the RecTec Controller being useless and they won't warranty it.
The PIC they(RecTec) use is a 18f25k22 made byMicrochip. Someday I will connect to it and test/reprogram it. Not on my must do now list. They both use an PT1000 RTD type sensor.
MK
update: I checked the PIC controller chip on the FireCraft and it is the same PIC controller chip as used in the RecTec.
One of the problems most encountered by the Firecraft is the Membrane type buttons fail. The REcTec uses PCB mounted momentary micro switches which is a great improvement over the Roanoke style controller using the membrane type found on the Firecraft, Louisiana Grills and some others.
jgrayson:
Hi Mikro,
Thanks for this information. I remembered that you had installed a RecTec controller in your FireCraft, but I didn't realize you ran into a similar temperature control problem. I'm going to test mine some more to see if changing the pellet feed rate will help. I don't have the electronics skills that you have so I'm not going to try to rebuild the original controller (but I believe I never threw it in the trash).
If adjusting the pellet feed rate doesn't produce better results, then I will look into a Louisiana controller as another member suggested.
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